CableOrganizer re-organizes itself

CableOrganizer.com Inc., a web-only retailer of computer networking products and other electrical supplies, has moved from three separate office locations in southern Florida to a new 38,500-square-foot office and warehouse facility in Fort Lauderdale, where it employs 45 people, says co-founder and chief operating officer Paul Holstein. “We have room for growth,” he says.

CableOrganizer, No. 450 in the Internet Retailer Top 500 Guide, has also been expanding its selection. The retailer added more than 400 new products last year, bringing its total to more than 42,000. “We’re looking to fill holes in our product line,” Holstein says.

Holstein and his wife, president and CEO Valerie Holstein, founded CableOrganizer in their garage in 2002 to sell an initial line of devices for organizing the electrical cables that power computers and home entertainment systems.

The retailer now sells a range of tools and testing equipment for managing electrical products and systems as well as computer network products, electrical supplies and home theater components. Among its most recent additions are digital projects for home theater systems. It now carries 19 product categories with a total of about 31,000 SKUs.

“On top of that, we’re also looking to expand our product offerings into the industrial market by offering products that are either hard to find, or were, until recently, unavailable online,” Holstein adds. New industrial products include street lighting poles, security cameras, and safety clothing and equipment for electrical workers.

But instead of just choosing from new products made available every year from its vendors, CableOrganizer is now taking a more active approach of monitoring what its shoppers are searching and asking for, as well as keeping abreast of what’s new on the market, and compiling a monthly list of potential new products to make available on its site. “We research each product on the list, then hold a meeting each month and vote on which products to prioritize in our merchandising,” Holstein says. “On a scale of one to five, one is do the product now, five is never.”